L.A. Lakers should let Dwight Howard go

Today's issue of The Sporting Muse, which includes 118 million reasons why the Lakers should tell Dwight Howard to go:

It all seems so unseemly for a franchise that's never had to beg a player to play for them, except for that one time in 1996 when Cedric Ceballos went AWOL at Lake Havasu.

The Lakers purchased billboard space last week imploring the often torpid Howard, who became a free agent today, to stay with them, complete with social media hashtag to make sure everyone knew they were serious.

A ploy? Maybe. The worst thing that could happen to the Lakers is for Howard to return.

Advertisement

Why be coy? In his career, Howard hasn't won anything. His Orlando team reached the finals once and Kobe Bryant punked him, with the Lakers winning the 2009 finals in five games and Howard leading his team in scoring just once in the series.

Howard showed the Lakers what it's like to own an expensive-looking sports car that tops out at 65 mph. The only thing he dominated was people's attention. He is sleek-looking and muscular, but his output isn't what anyone in sports would call a difference-maker.

The Lakers went 45-37 last season with him, and in the NBA's West they likely could do as well without him.

To keep Howard, the Lakers can offer $118 million over five years ($23.6 million per). Other teams can offer $88 over four ($22 million per).

In the process of keeping Howard, a team that was $55 million over the salary cap last season will hamstring itself financially for the next half-decade because the NBA's new cap tax rules become almost a dollar-for-dollar hit.

The only reason to keep the Dwight-must-stay story line alive is in the hope that some knucklehead owner (cue Donald T. Sterling) will make a stupid sign-and-trade offer for Howard.

The Lakers expect the best from Bryant coming off his Achilles tear, but no one can predict even the hard-working Bryant can be 100 percent for all of next season. So the most expedient thing to do is take whatever hit awaits next season in the standings and prepare for the future.

So here's a simple three-point plan:

1. Let D12 go. He's better suited in a city where expectations aren't too high and going two rounds in the playoffs makes a lot of people happy. An immediate $118 million savings.

2. Suck it up and let either Pau Gasol or Metta World Peace go. The Lakers would get an immediate cap exemption if they do, which puts them in a position to spend money on free agents a year later.

3. Let this Mike D'Antoni mess play itself out for one more season and then ask Phil Jackson back for 2014-15, perhaps at the same time his girlfriend, Jeanie Buss, is making Laker decisions and not brother Jimmy.

The Western Conference isn't exactly the Battle of Stalingrad. Three of the teams that finished with the most wins in the conference fired their head coaches after the season. After you get past Oklahoma City, aging (or ageless) San Antonio and Doc Rivers' Clippers, it's a raffle.

If Bryant's healthy, the Lakers can make the playoffs next season and still remake the team for the future. Rebuilding in Los Angeles is a forbidden word, but as the Dodgers have learned, all it takes is one player (Yasiel Puig!) to cause immediate amnesia.

Space limitations do not allow listing all 118 reasons why Dwight should not stay, but here's a topper to go out on: His free-throw percentage was .492 last season, his lowest for a full season. In his eight seasons in L.A., Shaquille O'Neal averaged 52 percent or more on his free throws and shot better than 49 percent six times.

Howard is not going to produce an NBA title next season, much less win three NBA titles in his next five seasons.